Wilma Rudolph- Against All Odds, An Olympic Legend

Born premature on June 23, 1940, in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee, Wilma Rudolph was a sickly child who had to wear a brace on her left leg. She overcame her disabilities through physical therapy and hard work, and went on to become a gifted runner. Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympics in 1960, at the Summer Games in Rome, and later worked as a teacher and track coach. She is the epitome of the American Spirit of overcoming great obstacles to be a champion.

If I Had Sneezed

In 1958, years before his "I Have a Dream Speech", his marches in Selma and Birmingham, and almost 10 years prior to his assassination in 1968 in Memphis, Dr. Martin Luther King was stabbed by a woman named Izola Curry while he was signing books at a book signing in Harlem. Physicians were able to save Dr. King, but said that if he would have sneezed the knife would have most certainly pierced his heart and killed him.  The video above pays tribute to the last speech Dr. King ever made.

Bessie Coleman- Aviation Pioneer

Bessie Coleman was the first African American woman in the world to earn a Pilot's license. Ms. Coleman was born in Texas and worked with her family as sharecroppers, picking cotton and farming the land. Bessie worked her way through high school and moved to Chicago at the age of 23 where she was denied the opportunity to pursue her dream as a pilot. Undeterred, she took classes in French and upon their completion, moved to Paris, France where, on June 15, 1921, she became the first American of any gender to earn an International Pilot's license. She became a stunt pilot and died, ironically, as a passenger in an airplane crash at the age of 32.